Characters that appeared in Andy Serkis' Mowgli.
ALL SPOILERS ARE UNMARKED. Read on at your own discretion.
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Main characters
Mowgli
Played by: Rohan Chand
The film's protagonist and title character, Mowgli is an orphaned human child adopted by a pack of wolves.- Badass Adorable: He may be a 10-year-old boy with a sweet disposition, but he's plucky and doesn't go down without a fight. Especially in the end where he takes on Shere Khan.
- Baths Are Fun: One scene before his first encounter with Shere Khan shows that he really enjoys swimming and diving.
- Beware the Nice Ones: When the danger his pack is in gets dire, Mowgli isn't afraid to face his foes head-on.
- Child of Two Worlds: Being a human raised by wolves, he has difficulty finding where he belongs.
- Determinator: Once Mowgli sets his mind to something, there's not a chance in Hell that you can stop him from doing it.
- Expository Hairstyle Change: When he gets integrated into the man-village, he gets his hair washed, combed and tied in a bun. When he returns to the jungle to fight Shere Khan, his Wild Hair is back.
- Extreme Omnivore: He eats everything from jungle fruit to raw meat and insects.
- Happily Adopted: By Nisha and Vihaan, after Akela and the pack ward off Shere Khan, the killer of his parents; later by Messua.
- I Am Very British: He speaks with such an accent despite being Indian, possibly because all the animals he grew up with have British accents.
- Interspecies Friendship: With almost everyone in the pack, but Bagheera, a black leopard, would be the most prominent among his friends.
- Loincloth: His only piece of clothing while he lives in the jungle, until his first meeting with human civilization.
- Messianic Archetype: A person of miraculous birth who brings hope to the jungle, grapples with what side he truly belongs, suffers the loss of several family members, before bringing peace to the jungle.
- My Greatest Failure: His is never reconciling with Bhoot before he died. Finding him amongst Lockwood's menagerie completely breaks his heart.
- Nice Guy: Towards those he holds dear, he is tender, warm-hearted and compassionate.
- Le Parkour: During his training for the Running, he develops some impressive athletic chops for climbing and resourceful path-finding to compensate for what he lacks in speed.
- Raised by Wolves: Literally. After his parents got killed by Shere Khan, he got adopted by a pack of wolves.
- Running on All Fours: He initially does this during the Running of the Pack, but he eventually switches to two-legged running.
- Tap on the Head: Hit his head on a rock when he was being carried by the monkeys.
- The So-Called Coward: Being a human child, he makes it easy for others to assume that he is a weakling; ironically, he proves to be significantly more valiant than Shere Khan during the climax.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: Even after he joins the man-village and starts wearing a sarong and shoes, he goes around shirtless.
- Wild Child: A human child who's grown up in the jungle.
- Wild Hair: He has long, curly, unkempt locks, fitting for a boy who spent his entire life in the jungle.
- Wound That Will Not Heal: He has a wound on his left arm.
Bagheera
"You are no different, Little Brother — you are special."
Voiced by: Christian Bale
A black panther who found the infant Mowgli in the jungle and took him to the wolf pack. He becomes Mowgli's closest friend and mentor.- Angry Animalistic Growl: He speaks with one when Baloo proves to be almost impossible to reason with after the Running."Khan will kill him and tear the pack apart!"
- Big Brother Mentor: He calls Mowgli "Little Brother" and teaches him how to hunt and survive in the jungle.
- A Cat in a Gang of Dogs: Technically counts being a panther seen amongst the wolf pack.
- Character Tics: He heaves a sigh while lifting his head when he is particularly upset.
- Child of Two Worlds: Mirroring Mowgli's story, he was raised in a cage among humans, but escaped to the jungle where he found his place as a wild predator.
- Dark and Troubled Past: He was born and raised in captivity, having spent most of his time in a cage as a plaything of man, which is why he had to gain their trust rather than fight his way out.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Being a melanistic leopard, he is almost completely black and looks fairly fearsome to a layman, but he is one of the most upstanding and noble associates of the pack, and very loyal to Mowgli.
- Good Is Not Soft: If it's for your own good, Bagheera will do things you don't like. After being unable to convince Mowgli to go to the Man-Village to be safe from Shere Khan, he intentionally targets the boy during the Running to make him fail, because he believes that the Man Village is the only place where Mowgli will be safe from Shere Khan, seeing as there is no way that the tiger will relent in his pursuit of him.
- Lightning Bruiser: He proves to be both very strong, and very agile.
- Nice Guy: Kind-hearted, compassionate and noble. He is one of the most well-meaning denizens of the jungle.
- Only Sane Man: Only Bagheera realizes that Shere Khan will try to kill Mowgli, with or without the pack's protection, and that the man village is the only place where Mowgli will be completely safe from his claws.
- Panthera Awesome: One of the most badass, fearsome hunters in the entire jungle.
- Punch-Clock Villain: During the Running of the Pack, he assumes an antagonistic role, pretending to attack the young wolves to provide them a challenge.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The blue to Baloo's red in that he's more level-headed and steadfast.
- Scars Are Forever: He has a bald spot under his chin left by the collar he used to wear in captivity for years.
- Sink or Swim Mentor: Bagheera takes his role as hunter in the Running very seriously; he ruthlessly picks off those who don't do well.
- Undying Loyalty: To Mowgli — cemented when out of all the mammals in Akela's pack, it's he who is willing to step ahead and aid Mowgli in his mission to kill Shere Khan. Only Baloo's denial stops him from following with it.
Baloo
"Of course you're different. That's why you need special training."
Voiced by: Andy Serkis
A grumpy old bear who teaches the wolf cubs the Law of the Jungle. Although his training methods can be rough, he tries his best to teach Mowgli become a wolf.- Adaptational Ugliness: This version of Baloo is creepy compared to his other incarnations.
- Artistic License – Biology:
- Bears are not known to bald — Baloo's entire face is strangely devoid of fur.
- He appears to be a Himalayan brown bear rather than the more geographically appropriate sloth bear. Presumably this is meant to correspond with the original book, which identifies him as a brown bear. But even then, his dark fur and hunched back also resemble a (further misplaced) grizzly bear, as Himalayan brown bears usually have bright, cream-colored fur.
- In addition, during the scene where Mowgli and Baloo discover a mutilated domestic cow, Baloo only notices it when he takes a direct look at it; bears have some of the keenest noses in the animal kingdom, so Baloo should have picked up the scent.
- Badass Teacher: If it means protecting anyone he holds dear, Baloo doesn't hesitate to get physical.
- Bears Are Bad News: He's a large, rugged, scarred brown bear with a grating voice who is harsh and demanding with his students. However, he's a Jerk with a Heart of Gold who wants the best for Mowgli.
- Break His Heart to Save Him: Baloo immediately realizes that Bagheera intentionally targeted Mowgli to make him fail, but he is forced to say Mowgli failed the running. He is clearly pained, but he knows he has no choice.
- British Stuffiness: Invoked. He speaks with a Cockney accent, which is often stereotypical of crass, uncouth characters even in British media. Subverted in that he's still a Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
- Drill Sergeant Nasty: He is harsh, demanding and forces Mowgli into physically challenging tasks, to teach him how to survive in the jungle. Andy Serkis explicitly described him as a drill sergeant.
- Face of a Thug: When compared to Bagheera and the wolves, his bald head, beat-up face, and disheveled fur make him look like an antagonist. Despite this, he is a noble member of the pack.
- Grumpy Growler: He speaks with a deep, gruff voice and is very rough around the edges. His heart's in the right place, nevertheless.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Despite his gruff and stern behaviour, he truly cares about Mowgli and wants to see him succeed.
- Knight in Sour Armor: Even though he comes across as a killjoy and even abusive to a layman, he knows better than any of the students that the jungle is unforgiving and harsh, and that the whelps need to be mentally prepared for taking on the world.
- Mighty Glacier: He's rather sluggish compared to the others, but still packs a good punch.
- Papa Wolf: Make no mistake — for all his harshness, he will not let anyone harm Mowgli. This extends even to Bagheera, as Baloo furiously calls him out for deliberately making Mowgli fail the running.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The red to Bagheera's blue in that he's more abrasive and aggressive.
- Scary Teeth: Downplayed. He has a prominent snaggletooth for a lower right fang, which adds to his overall gritty design.
- Stern Teacher: He's strict, demanding, and willing to use physical violence on disobedient wolf cubs.
- Token Minority: The only bear in the wolf pack, and the only one in the entire film.
Allies
Kaa
"I think we can both agree, Mowgli, that you are something the jungle has never seen before."
Voiced by: Cate Blanchett
A gigantic, mystical python who is said to be as old as the jungle itself and able to see the past and the future.- Adaptation Distillation: In the book, Baloo and Bagheera has to seek Kaa for his help on rescuing Mowgli from the Bandar-log, knowing that they are terrified of him. Here, Kaa unexpectedly shows up at the temple just when the situation's getting dire.
- Animals Not to Scale: She is much bigger than any real-life snake, closer in size to a prehistoric Titanoboa (and in some shots she appears even bigger than one). This is probably done to reflect her age, as most reptiles get bigger the older they get.
- Artistic License – Biology: Kaa has unusually blue eyes and green scales for an Indian python.
- Big Damn Heroes: She crashes through the monkey temple's walls to rescue Mowgli, scaring off the monkeys and forcing Shere Khan to back off.
- Character Narrator: She narrates the opening and closing scenes of the movie.
- Creepy Good: She may not be a villain, but that doesn't make her any less frightening to a layman.
- The Dreaded: Every animal in the jungle fears her, including the monkey-people and Shere Khan himself.
- Gender Flip: In the book, Kaa was a male python. This version is female, just like her previous live action counterpart.
- Good Is Not Nice: She wants peace in the Jungle and despises Shere Khan, but she still toys around with Mowgli and at one point pretends to try and eat him, and she calls the fight between Akela and his challengers "entertainment".
- Horrifying the Horror: Even Shere Khan, an unfettered Law-breaking tiger, knows better than to mess with her.
- Large Ham: Not only is she physically enormous — her every word drips with hamminess, complete with stressed sibilants.
- Physical God: She's practically this, considering her impossible age and her mystical seer abilities.
- Seers: She has the ability to see both the past and the future of the jungle.
- Sssssnake Talk: She slips into this when she's angry.
- Snakes Are Sinister: Inverted. This take on Kaa is Truer to the Text, thus while still creepy and scary, she is decidedly not villainous by any means.
- Time Abyss: She the oldest being in the entire jungle. Some say she's as old as the jungle itself.
- Troll: It's not below her to pretend that she wants to eat Mowgli just to scare the boy for her own amusement.
- Truer to the Text: This incarnation of Kaa is more accurate to the book version than other notable versions of the character like the 1967 and 2016 film.
- Wise Serpent: She's a wise python who can see the past and future of the jungle.
Nisha
"You will always be my son, Mowgli. Nothing can ever change that."
Voiced by: Naomie Harris
The she-wolf that adopted and raised Mowgli.- Adaptational Name Change: Her name was Raksha in the book.
- Good Parents: She's very caring and supportive of Mowgli.
- Happily Married: To Vihaan; in the few scenes they share together, they show not only concern for their young, but also a mutual tenderness.
- Mama Bear: She is fiercely protective of her cubs, especially Mowgli.
- Nice Girl: Kind-hearted, nurturing and emotional.
- Noble Wolf: She is a tough, fierce she-wolf and a loving mother.
- Parental Substitute: She's Mowgli's adoptive mother.
Vihaan
"I've never seen a man-cub before. It's so... small."
Voiced by: Eddie Marsan
Nisha's mate and Mowgli's adoptive father.- Good Parents: While he may be more cautious and hesitant than Nisha, he's not afraid to stand up for those he holds dear against the likes of Tabaqui or Shere Khan (albeit here he had the support of the pack).
- Happily Married: To Nisha; in the few scenes they share together, they show not only concern for their young, but also a mutual tenderness.
- Named by the Adaptation: In the book he was only known as Father Wolf.
- Nice Guy: While a little prone to worrying, he is overall warm-hearted, loyal and helpful.
- Noble Wolf: While not as outwardly risk-prone or as good a hunter as the other wolves, he's well-intentioned and Mowgli and the rest of his litter take him seriously as their father.
- Parental Substitute: He's Mowgli's adoptive father.
Akela
"When you were a cub, I looked you in the eye and saw no fear."
Voiced by: Peter Mullan
The elderly leader of the wolf pack.- Adaptation Distillation: In the books, his failure in the night hunt was staged by a portion of the pack that had already defected to Shere Khan prior to the incident; no such thing happens in the film, and Akela misses his kill purely thanks to his own actions.
- Asskicking Leads to Leadership: In the wolf pack, the leader rises to power by fighting the previous leader, which is likely what Akela did when he was young. The status must be maintained: leaders who miss their kills are seen as poor hunters, and thus, unfit to lead the pack, which is what happens to Akela halfway into the movie.
- Big Good: Seen as the cornerstone of nobility and decency for the whole pack.
- Brave Scot: Invokes this trope due to having a Scottish accent, courtesy of Peter Mullan.
- Cool Old Guy: Sensible, noble and considerate. Despite his old age, he is a formidable fighter and a competent leader.
- Dies Differently in Adaptation: As opposed to his death in the film, as described under Heroic Sacrifice, Akela's novel counterpart dies much later chronologically, during the events of Red Dog.
- Heroic Sacrifice: In the final battle, he jumps at Shere Khan to save Mowgli, and gets hit by one of Lockwood's bullets meant for the tiger.
- Honor Before Reason: He will abide by the law regardless of how much it hinders him. Akela refuses to acknowledge Mowgli saved his life with fire, and he is hesitant about fighting Shere Khan in the climax.
- Noble Wolf: The strong and wise leader of the wolf pack.
- Non-Standard Character Design: Has an unusually long, mohawk-like mane.
- The Patriarch: He is the oldest member of the wolf pack and holds the most power as its leader. That being said, his rule can always be challenged if he misses his kill.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: He is very prudent when assessing matters; instead of dismissing Mowgli's inclusion a priori, he follows the procedure of the Jungle Law to see if anyone will speak for Mowgli. He also believes that Mowgli can bring about a time of peace and harmony between man and beast if he learns the ways of the jungle.
Grey Brother
"The pack needs you, Mowgli."
Voiced by: Jack Reynor
Nisha and Vihaan's son and Mowgli's adoptive brother.- Cool Big Bro: He's the oldest of Nisha and Vihaan's litter and by far the most kind-hearted to Mowgli.
- Fashionable Asymmetry: He has a large white patch on one side of his face, giving him a unique look.
- The Herald: His explanations of the trouble that Shere Khan has brought to them is the first indication to Mowgli that he has to return home.
- Light Is Good: The lightest-colored of Nisha's litter is also the kindest one.
- Nice Guy: Generally jovial and sociable, and the only one of Nisha and Vihaan's litter who is kind and friendly to Mowgli.
- Noble Wolf: He is the only brother of Mowgli who remains loyal to Akela and never turns to Shere Khan.
- Uniformity Exception: While the other pups of Nisha and Vihaan's litter are reddish, like most Indian wolves, Grey Brother has black and grey smudges over a white base, as is fitting for his name. Needless to say, he's not aggressive, and is the only one of the four who cares about Mowgli.
Wolf Siblings
"Freaks have to stick together."
Voiced by Jayden Fowora-Knight, Georgie Farmer and Kassius Carey-Johnson
Nisha and Vihaan's sons and Mowgli adoptive brothers.- Big Brother Bully: They are are mean towards Mowgli, calling him a freak.
- Disney Villain Death: One of them falls to their death after trying to lunge at Akela when the pack challenges him.
- Flat Character: They do not have much characterization besides being jerks to Mowgli.
- Gang of Bullies: Three brothers who antagonize Mowgli and Bhoot for being “freaks”.
- Terrible Trio: All three of them are very harsh and dismissive of Mowgli.
- Uncertain Doom: When Akela missed his kill, they tried taking him down to remove him from his position. At least one of them falls to his death, but the other two aren’t seen after the fight. It is possible Akela killed them offsreeen.
Bhoot
"I don't have any friends either. But we have each other."
Voiced by: Louis Ashbourne Serkis
An albino wolf runt who gets bullied by the rest of the pack. He considers Mowgli his best friend.- Albinos Are Freaks: Bhoot is an albino runt who gets bullied and called a freak who "came out wrong" by the other wolves. He and Mowgli become best friends because they both have difficulties finding their place in the pack. He's surprisingly cheerful despite his status.
- Artistic License – Biology: Albino mammals' eyes are usually red, due to lack of pigmentation causing the blood vessels to add the color — Bhoot has blue eyes.
- Birds of a Feather: With Mowgli. They become friends because they are both seen as "freaks" by the rest of the wolf pack.
- Canon Foreigner: He was created for the movie and has no counterpart in the book.
- Cheerful Child: Always has a sunny, playful disposition.
- Dead Guy on Display: Lockwood keeps his stuffed head on a stand in his hut.
- Death of a Child: To cement how grim this movie can get, Bhoot is a young wolf pup who was killed by Lockwood just because he thought he was a rare find.
- Forgotten Fallen Friend: Downplayed; While Mowgli is traumatized seeing his dead friend and plans to kill Lockwood because of Bhoot’s death, none of the other members of the Wolf pack seem to acknowledge or care about what happened to Bhoot, not even his mother.
- Friendly Target: He is one of Mowgli’s closest friends and gets killed later on in the story.
- Innocent Blue Eyes: They help to make him more endearing.
- Kill the Cutie: An adorable young wolf pup who is killed by Lockwood just so the hunter can have an albino animal in his collection. Mowgli breaks into tears upon finding this out.
- Living Emotional Crutch: He's Mowgli's best friend in the pack. Mowgli getting mad and yelling at him is the point when things start getting from bad to worse. His eventual death is what leads Mowgli to finally leave the man-village and take on Shere Khan.
- Meaningful Name: His name means "ghost" in Hindi and Urdu. What a surprise.
- Nice Guy: Bhoot would never hurt a fly.
- The Pollyanna: No matter how much abuse he gets from the other wolves, he never loses his cheerful attitude.
- The Runt at the End: The smallest and weakest member of the wolf-pack.
- Too Good for This Sinful Earth: Bhoot is the most optimistic and cheerful character in the movie. His death cements how humans can be just as cruel and merciless as nature.
- White Wolves Are Special: His white fur matched his pure-hearted personality. He's also "special" in the sense of being weak and physically challenged.
Hathi
Voiced by: N/A
An ancient, mighty elephant with a broken right tusk.- Acoustic License: Played with. When he first appears, his footsteps are plodding, heavy and unusually loud, more akin to the footsteps of dinosaurs in popular media. When he trudges towards Lockwood, however, Lockwood can't hear him coming because of the elephant's padded feet.
- Animal Nemesis: He becomes this to Lockwood after the hunter shoots his tusk.
- Berserk Button: When Hathi is informed that Lockwood is the one that maimed his tusk, he is absolutely livid; he dashes towards the hunter with unbridled zeal.
- Beware the Nice Ones: He's generally gentle and tame, but he gets angry and vengeful at Lockwood for getting his tusk shot.
- Big Good: He's the ruler of the jungle and treated with the utmost respect from all other animals.
- Cruel Elephant: Downplayed. He's an Honorable Elephant under most circumstances, but (as Lockwood learns the hard way) he can be very vengeful to those who get on his bad side.
- Elephants Never Forget: He's always remembered that a hunter cleaved off half his tusk with a gunshot, and later runs in for revenge when Mowgli points him to Lockwood.
- A Friend in Need: He rescues Mowgli from the tiger pit, and later aids him in his endeavor to defeat Shere Khan.
- Gentle Giant: He's benevolent and kind, rescuing Mowgli from a tiger pit.
- Honorable Elephant: As he is the leader of the elephants, who founded the Jungle Law, he is a very straight example of this.
- Physical God: His immense size and the plants growing on his body make him look like an ancient, living mountain.
- Planimal: He's covered in vegetation, which gives him an almost mammoth-like look and contributes to his ancient-seeming aesthetic.
- Stealthy Colossus: Since elephants have padded feet that allow them to move almost unheard when they walk, it comes of no surprise that Lockwood doesn't hear Hathi trudging towards him until it's too late.
- The Speechless: He never utters a single word. Fittingly, he was called "Hathi the Silent" in the book.
Messua
Played by: Freida Pinto
A kind human woman who takes care of Mowgli in the Man-Village.- Early-Bird Cameo: She is the woman Mowgli frightens when he searches for fire to scare off Shere Khan.
- Demoted to Extra: In the book, she gets a lot of time as Mowgli's human mother figure. She is only briefly featured here in a couple of scenes and does not get any characterization at all.
- Nice Girl: She's gentle and caring, helping Mowgli to fit in with the man-village and doing the utmost to raise him properly.
- Parental Substitute: As in the source material, Messua is Mowgli's foster mother while he's in the man village.
Antagonists
Shere Khan
"My, my... how you've grown."
Voiced by: Benedict Cumberbatch
As in The Jungle Book, Shere Khan is the chief antagonist of the film. He is a limping Bengal tiger who regularly violates the Jungle Law by killing humans and their livestock, which forces them to hunt innocent animals.
- Abled in the Adaptation: Averted. For once, he is portrayed with a deformed right paw that renders him unable to walk properly, causing him to limp, just like in the novel.
- Acoustic License: There's a snowball's chance in Hell that the claws of a real tiger would sound like a sword blade being sharpened; however, it makes for good sound design.
- Adaptational Badass: Notably more willing to act on his convictions than his novel counterpart, who was all bark and almost no bite.
- Animal Nemesis: To Mowgli, seeking to kill him ever since he was a baby.
- Ax-Crazy: This diseased beast takes gleeful relish in any chance he has to inflict violence upon others, particularly if they're of mankind. Best shown when he has Mowgli firmly in his clutches and takes the time simply to watch him wince in pain as he claws his arm.
- Big Bad: The primary antagonist of the movie, whose motivation to kill Mowgli drives much of the plot.
- Cats Are Mean: There is no other way to describe his less-than-charming demeanor.
- Dies Differently in Adaptation: As opposed to the original novel, where he's trampled in a stampede of water buffaloes, Shere Khan is killed by Mowgli thrusting his knife into the jugular vein. Needless to say that Mowgli didn't skin him afterwards.
- Dirty Coward: Zig-zagged. During the final confrontation, he bolts for safety after Mowgli gives him a nasty knife thrust to the gut. When Lockwood misses his shot and grazes Mowgli's arm, Shere Khan immediately turns around to try and kill the boy once more, knowing that he is defenseless. On the other hand, when Mowgli has finally cornered him, Shere Khan takes one more shot at trying to kill Mowgli before the boy thrusts the knife into his jugular, killing him for good.
- Evil Cripple: His front right paw is crippled and withered, giving him a limp. He presumably became a man-eater because his handicap makes him a subpar hunter.
- Evil Is Hammy: He chews the scenery with abandon whenever he is excited or angry — Benedict Cumberbatch in his natural environment as far as antagonists are concerned.
- Evil Is Petty: As an all-round arrogant jerkass and a violent sadist, he definitely fits the bill.
- Evil Sounds Deep: Also thanks to Cumberbatch, he boasts an imposing baritone voice.
- Fantastic Racism: He hates mankind so much that he stresses the word "man" every time he says it with unbridled rage.
- Fatal Flaw: Arrogance, obstinacy, wrath and sanctimony all rolled into one.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Very aggressive and tactless.
- Handicapped Badass: His damaged right forelimb doesn't make him any less of a threat to Mowgli: he is capable of galloping, jumping and even climbing with his predicament.
- Hate Sink: You will not find a single redeeming quality in this tiger; he is as revolting on the inside as he is on the outside.
- Hypocrite: He chastises the acceptance of a child into Akela's pack as against the Jungle Law, but finds no issue in breaking said Law whenever it suits his needs.
- Icy Blue Eyes: He has blue irises, which highlight his overall cold and callous demeanor.
- It's All About Me: His selfishness is what instigates most of the troubles that the Seonee pack has to endure.
- Jerkass: To an appalling degree; not only does he openly defy the Jungle Law, but he also takes pleasure in torturing anyone who opposes him, and relishes the opportunity to spite Akela when he turns part of his pack against him.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: After years of evading comeuppance for his violations of the Jungle Law, Shere Khan is finally faced with poetic justice — the elephants who founded the Law.
- Karmic Death: Killed by the creature that he spent his entire life hating — man.
- Knight of Cerebus: Shere Khan never fails to remind us that he is a genuine and very real threat.
- Lack of Empathy: Since he's perfectly willing to kill a nursing mother and her infant son, Khan has zero empathy.
- Manipulative Bastard: He manages to coax a sizable portion of the pack to side against Akela; a task which does take intelligence.
- Obviously Evil: Just look at him!
- Panthera Awesome: While crippled, he is still capable of being a formidable big cat.
- Psychotic Smirk: Sports several of these after he coaxes part of Akela's pack to side against him, priding himself on having the high ground over the former pack leader.
- Red Right Hand: His crippled right paw is an almost literal example, being reddish-brown and withered.
- Sadist: A depraved, violent tiger who kills for pleasure, and enjoys to torture his victims. It's further implied in his last spoken words."You know, I can still hear your mother's screams, the night I took her life!"
- Sinister Scraping Sound: As he drags his crippled foreleg while limping, the claw makes a sound akin to the scraping of a metal blade.
- Slasher Smile: He does this several times, and it looks absolutely blood-curdling.
- Smug Snake: He's certainly full of himself, until he faces a superior opponent such as Kaa or the elephants.
- The Sociopath: Remorseless, arrogant, self-righteous, obstinate beyond all reason and completely devoid of any redeeming qualities — there's no other way to sum all this up.
- The Un-Smile: Every time he smiles, he menacingly bares his fangs; it only helps make him more unsettling than he already is.
- Verbal Tic: He always stresses the word "man" as though he is spitting it out, showing his unbridled hatred of the species.
- Vile Villain, Laughable Lackey: A powerful, menacing, sadistic tiger accompanied by the cowardly, constantly giggling Tabaqui.
- Would Hurt a Child: Not only that; he is almost aroused by every opportunity he has to torment Mowgli.
Tabaqui
"Sometimes I dream I'm a tiger, but I always wake up a hyena."
Voiced by: Tom Hollander
A cowardly hyena who serves as Shere Khan's informant, and usually follows him around as a toady.- Adaptational Dumbass: In the book, Mowgli openly acknowledged Tabaqui as a cunning spy for Shere Khan. This movie doesn't show any signs of him having that kind of cleverness.
- Adaptational Wimp: While he was also a toady in the book, he also had fits of madness that caused him to bite everything in his path. Even Shere Khan avoided him during those episodes. He never has any in this movie.
- Adaptation Species Change: Tabaqui was a jackal in the book. Here, he's a hyena (presumably a striped hyena, but he looks more like a brown hyena).
- Artistic License – Biology: He doesn't look very much like a striped hyena, the only species native to India. He looks more like a brown hyena, which is endemic to Africa. He also laughs like a spotted hyena, another African species.
- Bugs Herald Evil: He is constantly seen as swarmed by insects whenever he shows up.
- Creepy High-Pitched Voice: His voice is a grating, sniveling tenor.
- Dirty Coward: A self-centered, greedy lowlife who never stands up to anyone and flees at the first sight of danger.
- Evil Smells Bad: Implied, since he's perpetually surrounded by a swarm of insects.
- Fair-Weather Friend: He abandons Shere Khan as soon as he has the chance when the elephants come from behind them.
- Faux Affably Evil: Tries to put on a thin veneer of politeness and pleasantry, but almost everyone sees straight through it.
- Hated by All: As a cowardly scavenger who mooches off of other predators' kills, it comes of no surprise that he is loathed by most of the jungle.
- Heinous Hyena: Tabaqui is wicked, cowardly and all-round unpleasant like a stereotypical hyena.
- The Hyena: A literal example; he giggles a lot.
- Jerkass: There is nothing comforting about Tabaqui: he is obnoxious, selfish and unpleasant.
- "Not So Different" Remark: At one point, he mocks Mowgli's wish to be a wolf instead of a man-cub by remarking "Sometimes, I dream I'm a tiger... but I always wake up a hyena."
- Psychopathic Manchild: He has a rather immature demeanor, most prominently when he laughs and mocks Akela like a petulant child after he returns from his failed night hunt.
- Scavengers Are Scum: He is a species of hyena that is mainly a scavenger, and downright unpleasant.
- Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: When he sees the elephants emerging from the forest to confront Shere Khan, abandons his master to fend for himself.
- Spared by the Adaptation: He runs away when the elephant herd surrounds Shere Khan, and is never seen again. In the book, he was killed by Grey Brother.
- Sycophantic Servant: To Shere Khan. If he's anything like his novel counterpart, Tabaqui follows the tiger in order to get scraps from his kills without trouble.
- Vile Villain, Laughable Lackey: He's the cowardly, sniveling minion of the terrifying, sadistic Shere Khan.
Bandar-log
Voiced by: N/A
A horde of monkeys dwelling in abandoned ruins. They are allied to Shere Khan.- Adaptational Villainy: In the book they were chaotic and lawless, but neutral, kidnapping Mowgli because they wanted to learn the ways of man from him. Here, they are allied with Shere Khan, kidnapping Mowgli to bring him to the tiger.
- Maniac Monkeys: A vicious, chaotic horde without laws or a language, who kidnap Mowgli and take him to Shere Khan.
- Monstrous Cannibalism: A few monkeys in the Cold Lair can actually be seen eating and biting onto other monkeys that are still alive!
- Spared by the Adaptation: We never see them getting killed and eaten by Kaa (except for the two that were on each side of the throne and were crushed by Kaa's coils as she wrapped herself around the structure), and many of them are present when Shere Khan takes over the wolf pack.
- The Speechless: They never talk, only screech and chatter, to emphasize their chaotic nature.
- Zerg Rush: Their preferred method of physical combat; when they attack Baloo and Bagheera, they swarm them in great numbers.
John Lockwood
"We can't all be scholars... because God knows I'm not."
Played by: Matthew Rhys
A British hunter who arrives to the Man-Village to kill Shere Khan. He captures Mowgli, but eventually releases him and becomes his mentor in the man-village.- Adaptational Name Change: His counterparts in the Mowgli stories were an Indian hunter named Buldeo and a British forest ranger named Gisborne.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Buldeo in the book was an outright Jerkass to Mowgli; he threatened to beat him when he discovered him taking the corpse of Shere Khan, and later tried to have Messua killed because he saw her as aiding an evil sorcerer. Aside from killing Bhoot, Lockwood is a genuinely nice man, who speaks Hindu fluently and treats the villagers with respect and kindness.
- Affably Evil: Aside from being an Egomaniac Hunter, he’s a genuinely friendly and decent man who is good to Mowgli and wants to help the village.
- Age Lift: His literary counterpart Buldeo was stated to be an old man, while Lockwood is in his forties, going by his actor's age.
- The Alcoholic: Downplayed; only once do we see him actually intoxicated, but it's shown in other short scenes that he does enjoy his booze.
- Anti-Villain: The only truly immoral things that he does pertain to being vain about his collection and hunting juvenile animals (considered very unsportsmanlike among all hunters except poachers); other than that, he is a cordial man who genuinely wants to help the village get rid of Shere Khan.
- BFG: He wields a large-caliber double-barreled rifle — presumably an elephant gun.
- Composite Character: While being the local hunter that Buldeo was, his position as the first white man Mowgli meets was held by Gisborne, whom Mowgli met in 'In the Rukh'', the first written but chronologically the last Mowgli story.
- Egomaniac Hunter: Downplayed. He takes pleasure in shooting rare animals and collecting trophies, but he doesn't do it out of outward vanity.
- Evil Brit: He's a British colonialist who takes great pleasure in hunting rare animals.
- Great White Hunter: He is generally a decent man, wanting to help the village get rid of the man-eating tiger and treating Mowgli with kindness. He's also literally the only white man in the film.
- Laser-Guided Karma: It hits him very hard — and very literally — when Hathi tracks him down and clobbers him with his trunk.
- Nice to the Waiter: He is by far not malicious, and treats Mowgli and the other villagers cordially.
- Obliviously Evil: He did not know that the albino wolf he killed was Mowgli's best friend.
- Race Lift: He's British like Gisborne from In the Rukh, but his other counterpart Buldeo, was Indian.
- Tuckerization: He's named after the artist and scholar John Lockwood Kipling, father of Rudyard Kipling, the author of the original book.
- Would Hurt a Child: Played with. He had no problem shooting, killing, and taxidermizing Bhoot, as in his view, it was just another animal (even though going after juvenile animals is outright illegal in dozens of countries and looked at incredibly badly among professional hunters). When he shoots Mowgli by accident in the final battle, however, he is visibly concerned.
